Which CPU for PCSX2 emulator?

There are lots of good games on the Gamecube, particularly the Zelda and Metroid titles and I get good performance with that emulator.

 

Brawl is good. Resident Evil for the Wii is a lot of fun.

 

Well PCSX2 Released a new version 0.9.8. Grab it here : PCSX2

 

Thanks for the update nik.

I just learned of this project just installed 0.9.7 yesterday, and 0.9.8 is avail today. That's the kind of updates I like to see

 

You had quite a bit of luck since it has been around 2 years since a new stable version has been released!

 

9.8 isn't as big a change as 9.7. But yeah, it's nice. Just very little performance improvement except for those with a very weak GPU.

 

I have a problem trying to run BLACK on the PCSX2 , anyone know settings to get this to run ?

 

I'm quite sure the PCSX2 forums would be the best place to ask for that.

 

Ahhh thanks for the link!

 

Man, Dolphin is dope.

But, does anyone know how to configure it so I can use my mouse as a wiimote? Very frustrating.

TYIA!

 

Its default setting is the mouse as the wiimote.

 

My i5 540 can run any dolphin game pretty easily. It turbo boosts to like 2.7 Ghz when im playing
check out some of my vids. The i5 sandy bridges should definitely be able to match and exceed this. Also the i7 2720 should be able to exceed it as well.

Super Smash Bros Brawl: YouTube - ‪super smash bros brawl in Dolphin(1080p) on Alienware M15x( i5 540m and radeon 5850m)‬‏

Tatsunoko vs. Capcom Ultimate All-Stars: YouTube - ‪Tatsunoko vs. Capcom Ultimate All-Stars on Dolphin (1080p) M15x i5 540m radeon 5850m‬‏

Wario Shake Dimension: YouTube - ‪Alienware M15x (i5 540m , Radeon 5850m) wario shake dimension Dolphin Emulator‬‏

i have some troubles running hyrule field in twilight princess though. Also Super Mario Galaxy gives some trouble when i turn copy CPU to EFB on. This is required to grab stars with the pointer. I just turn it on whenever i need to grab stars.

 

There is a special tweak that fixes the hyrule field problem.

 

i tried that a while back. It didnt help much. Maybe i got the wrong thing? wanna link me?

 

I only watched the Smash video. It looks like it runs at around 60+ fps constantly. However.... what's your screen resolution set at? I'm trying to have it at 1080p fullscreen and run at max fps Or would you recommend I turn it down to the 1280x720 setting?

 

its running in full 1080p. Cpu affects overall performance, and a decent gpu lets you run at higher resolutions. ....or so i heard. My 5850 def fits the bill.

 

Do you know of any program that monitors cpu speed? Cuz I don't want to keep alt+tabbing with the Intel Turbo Boost monitor thingy.

 

CPUID - System & hardware benchmark, monitoring, reporting
its called tmonitor

 

THANKS bud!

 

I don't know of any stand-alone link, however, I do remember it being a selection option within the actual emulator.

 

So I wonder how does a 2630 fare for wii emulation(dolphin)? Anyone could share their experiences? I tried some resident evil games on my aged G50, RE remake works perfectly, but RE0 runs way too slow to be playable.

 

Dolphin runs fine on various youtube videos showing it on an i5-430m. I imagine i7-720 or 740 would be fine as well. Therefore, the 2630 should be fine. It doesn't even use 100% of the cpu, so I doubt it would make a diff if you got 2630 or 2720.

 

You said you use the wiimote, curious what method you use (software) to connect it.

Its been a long time since I have done it and when I did with glovepie back in the day in combo with virtualjoy I had to give up that method when I moved to a 64bit OS because it would no longer work.

Im assuming Dolphin may have its own built in wiimote library that works only for the emulator, my method made the wiimote a general use pc controller so you can use it for any game.

 

Thats correct.
Dolphin "tricks" the Wiimote to think the emulator is the real deal.
Even works with attachments like WiiMotion+.

 

So what's the best way to get games to run at 45+fps? Lego Star Wars Complete Saga is soooo slow on mine. It's running at like 20something fps.

 

Forgot this was the pcsx2 thread lolz.

 

Actually it's more like an emulator thread, not just about pcsx2. And regarding your question about Lego Star Wars Complete Saga, try R6505, it's a golden version that might be a savior for the games you run slow on your computer.

Not sure about the game itself cause I have never played it myself, but speaking from my experience, R6505 makes my previously unplayable games like resident evil: the umbrella chronicles and some others TOTALLY playable.

oh, to be a little off topic, I ordered a M17R3 too

 

Thank you for the suggestion Gonna go hunt for that version now and try it. I wonder why a newer version wouldn't speed things up?

 

hey nikolai, how are you overclocking the cpu? did you have to BUY setfsb? could you please help me out.

 

i7 2630QM will work very well with dolphin.

I can confirm that i7 740QM does have a bit of problems with Dolphin. I tired to play one of my wii games in HD by using the computer instead, and it was not smooth at all. DK country returns = 75-85% speed on i7 740QM.

75-85% is not enjoyable, so I gave up and decided to stick with the non HD quality that my wii can provide.

 

Lol your telling him what his own thread is about

 

yes you have to buy setfsb to overclock, at least in my case I did. I don't know any other way to overclock the i7-720QM.

 

Would SetPLL work? That is what us M11x r2 users use for free.

 

Thumbed up.... I read some posts here and saw that new gen i7 CPUs worked fine with Dolphin, but how about PCSX2? I believe that both Dolphin and PCSX2 just use 2 cores, high clock rate is important so Im really confused to get a high clock dual cores (i5 2520m/ i5 2540m/ i7 2620m) or a lower clock rate quad cores (i7 2360qm/ i7 2720qm).
Actually I want to get a quad cores (i7 2360qm/ i7 2720qm) rather than dual cores (for many other purposes), but will its performance lose to higher clock dual cores CPU? It would be nice if someone share the experience. And is i7 2720qm a worth upgrade from i7 2630qm (higher clock rate)? Will it boost the speed in PCSX2? I want to play GOW1+2, Koei's DW series and some fighting games at decent FPS at least in native res... and by the way, will a mid-range GPU (exp 525m/540m/555m) be enough for PCSX2's GPU-heavy games?

 

I've got 2720qm and stock everything else. PCSX2 runs absolutely fine. 60fps while on GPU and ~45fps on IGP. Power saver mode works fine too. Ppl who had the i5-430m and i5-450m can play PCSX2 as well. Hope this helps

 

Thanks dookie11, that means I don't have to fall back to high clock Dual Cores to play PCSX2, guess I should start saving money to get the 2720qm .

 

The sandybridge Quads will switch from using 4 Cores at a lower clock to 2 at a higher one during PS2 emulation. However, people place far too much emphasis on CPU clock rate when it comes to emulation. The fact is, if a game is emulated very accurately or has optimisation issues then you will still suffer slow downs. The God of War PS2 titles for example will play slowly on that CPU you are planning to get and I have only seen decent performance on a 4GHZ Desktop CPU. However, using speedhacks can get similar performance because it skips some of the accuracy in the emulation. As you can see, many factors come into play here. I have good performance with the spec in my sig and I doubt a 2720qm will make any significant gains.

 

Notebook Reviews - Laptop Reviews and Netbook News Picture
Notebook Reviews - Laptop Reviews and Netbook News Picture

I see the 2720qm's dual cores clock is 3.2GHz while 2630qm is 2.8GHz, may be about 20% performance boost?

Anyway thanks for reply, I noticed that the gap of price between 2630qm and 2720qm is quite big so maybe I'll consider getting the 2630qm if it's out of my limit.

r4865 - pcsx2 - PCSX2 - a Playstation 2 Emulator - Google Project Hosting

PCSX2's great news, now having more confidence to get a quad cores processor!

 

@ Enpatsu

That link you posted is major ground breaking news in the emulation community. They have managed to make use of multiple Cores and for years that has either been said to be too difficult or too complicated to implement

You can download a build here but bare in mind it is not official and they are automated 32 bit SVN builds.

Edit: I have just tried this new multicore feature and results are simply outstanding. God of War (so far) no longer has slow downs and is smooth, Fight Night Round 3 doesn't even feel like it is being played on an emulator anymore. Wow, the difference is like night and day!

If I disable multicore and resume play of GOW, it slows down a lot and gameplay is nowhere near as smooth!

GOW2 is now full speed for me with this feature enabled too.


More technical information from the PCSX2 blog can be found here.

 

OMG OMG.
My notebook can finally do some PS2 on the go now, Dolphin already runs perfectly so multi core support for PCSX2 will finally make my games less choppy.

 

Soooooooooooooo glad to hear this, thanks for testing, your system is 2630qm and GOW ran smooth, yay! That was just the first step of multicores function of PCSX2 but a big jump in performance (you tested it), it's still in beta but who cares? In the later beta release I think this feature will become more awesome for sure.
By the way LaptopNut would you mind testing some other PCSX2 demanding games (sorry I don't know which games are demanding ) using your laptop? It would be nice if we can be more clear about current laptop system power compared to PCSX2's requirement .
Anyway, now I think I'll be fine if i get a i7 2630qm, just have one more question: I see that you have a GTX 485m, but because I need good batery power and low temperature sometimes so I guess I can only get a GT 555m (best NVIDIA mobile GPU with Optimus), do you think it's enough for PCSX2 along with i7 2630qm?

 

@ Enpatsu

The official PCSX2 requirements recommend a Desktop Nvidia GeForce 8800 or equivalent for good performance but minimum specs only mention a GPU that supports shader 2.0. I am not sure how well the GT 555m will perform and Optimus is notorious for causing problems so I would be careful.

The GTX485M will only give you a few hours of battery so if you need more I guess you have little choice. However, temperatures are excellent though.

I have almost completed the first level of GOW and I can say that at times I forgot it was running on an emulator because it ran so smoothly. I was running at 1920 x 1080 and in the future they may have more enhancements so a strong GPU will be useful I think. Whether your GPU will be good enough depends on the resolution you want to play at too.

I will test some more games.

 

well i have a hp dv6t with a 2630qm. I just tried god of war in 1080p with the multithreaded thingy and it ran perfect. Its got a 6770m with manual switchable graphics thnks to a bios update. Before when it only had dynamic switchable graphics like what optimus uses, both dolphin and pcsx2 only detected my intel graphics and performance suffered.

 

Another very intensive PS2 game that benefits from the multi core feature is Shadow of the Colossus. Without that setting, it is unplayable in some areas and just too slow. Previously I could only play that one if I enabled VU cycle stealing which is never a good thing, of course now there is no need to do this anymore!

The performance is from 40-60 fps but always smooth enough to enjoy so far.

 

PCSX2 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
I just had a look at PCSX2's wiki and it seems they changed the recommended system to higher class (from a Desktop's 8600GT to 9800GT), I did some search and found that GT 555m is somewhere around (not sure better or worse) a Desktop's 9800GT, I guess it should be fine then...

Thanks for reply, I found some threads here that said GT 555m is on pair with 6770m. I DO love the 6770m as it has 128 bit GDDR5 memory, but sadly only HP makes laptops with this GPU (I don't like HP because my first HP notebook crashed after only 6 months due to overheat issue). I'm planning to get a Clevo W150HRM (love the 95% NTSC color gamut options). However the 555m in W150HRM only had 128 bit DDR3 memory instead of 192 bit DDR3 in Dell XPS17 and Alienware m14x so I think it might a bit lose to 6770m. But playing PCSX2 games on 2x native resolution smoothly is great enough for me.

Great to hear this , if you use speed hack + multicore I guess the game will run at 60FPS all the time?
And it's awesome that God of War finally runs perfect!

 

Still PCSX2 uses only two cores, or was there an update recently?

 

PCSX2 can now make use of Quad Cores but the update has not made it to an official build yet, it is still in the Beta phase and available in the SVN's.

The speed increase from enabling multicore is very significant in most cases. The update was very recent and I had no idea about it until Enpatsu posted about it.

I just assumed that multicore support would never happen in my lifetime for PCSX2 emulation.

 

It is good to know finally the multicore support made it through. I'll wait until the next official release to test it.

 

More good news for emulation fans!

Dolphin has reached the latest stable version 3.0, after a year of development since its previous version 2.0. Maybe not good news depending on how you look at it since the Devs state "performance decreased in favor of more accurate hardware emulation"

Edit: Despite the above, I notice much better performance in Metroid Prime so far.

 

ive been using dolphin 3.0 for a while now, it seems faster than the older revisions ive been using.